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New Faculty Reward Structures

Message Number:

28

(5/28/98)

Folks:

One of the major challenges currently facing colleges and universities is how to create appropriate faculty reward structures that encourage greater teaching innovation. Here is a highly edited version of a report prepared by for the Sloan Foundation by Dr. Andy DiPaolo, (na.adp@forsythe.stanford.edu), associate dean, Stanford University, and based on the work of a committee he chaired consisting of faculty and senior university administrators from Michigan, Rennsselaer, Cornell, Colorado, Purdue, NYU, Maryland, Penn State, Columbia and Stanford. The report focuses on faculty incentives and rewards with respect to distributed learning innovation, however, it is clearly relevant to many other areas of faculty profess ional development.

NOTE: At your request I will be happy to send you, via e-mail attachment, a copy of the full report.

Rick Reis

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EDITED VERSION

Focus Area Committee Report on Faculty Acceptance and Motivation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Chaired by Andy DiPaolo, Stanford University
Incentives for faculty to accept and participate in distance learning activities

1. Provide payment to the faculty member, department and institution based on the number of distant students, revenue generated, teaching load or innovative use of a delivery technology.

2. Offer grants and staff support to develop distance classes or instructional modules to be imbedded in a course to be used on campus and at a distance.

3. Provide release time and professional leaves for course/curriculum redesign.

4. Use revenue earned to support faculty research, the hiring of additional faculty support staff and the dispensation of special perquisites that reflect the value and importance of working with distance learners.

9. Provide examples of how additional visibility in the business and industry community through distance learning may result in increased consultative and research-related relationships.

10. Provide a mechanism to generate additional revenue from the marketing of instructional products created as a result of teaching distant learners e.g., create relationships with campus marketing or licensing group and commercial publishers or software/video distributors.

11. Offer examples of how an expanded student base may help increase the sales of texts, software packages and multimedia products authored by faculty.

7. Offer flexible scheduling options for both faculty and students allowing for asynchronous or off-cycle classes e.g., condensed or elongated term, use of technology to take the course whenever and wherever needed etc.

8. Offer faculty information as to what industry is requesting in curriculum and courses by summarizing information collected from formal needs assessments, meetings with corporate executives, sessions with engineering managers and prospective studen ts etc.

9. Exhibit strong leadership from senior university officers, deans and department heads regarding the value of a distance learning

rogram to the institution.

10. Include distance learning in the mission, goals and policies of the institution, school and academic department and publicize this fact throughout the institution.

13. Initiate time saving measures and offer resources to speed the development of a new course for distance learners e.g., accessing courses and materials developed elsewhere, reducing teaching load, increasing staff suppor t in instructional design etc.